The Codru Quest: Economic Valuation of the Ecosystem Services of the Codru Protected Area

These are the datasets for the project entitled "The Codru Quest: Economic Valuation of the Ecosystem Services of the Codru Protected Area". It was a scientific research initiative of the organization Moldovan Environmental Governance Academy (MEGA) on the economic valuation of ecosystem services and biodiversity in the Codru forest and the protected area of the Codru Nature Reserve within it in the Republic of Moldova. The main goal of the project was to apply the choice modelling technique in this developing country to estimate and present the indirect use and non-use economic values of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation in the above-mentioned forest and the protected area. The Codru Quest was designed to answer a number of research questions, namely: 1. How do Moldovan citizens perceive such environmental non-market “goods”, as ecosystem services and biodiversity in the Codru forest? Specifically, how much do they value environmental benefits, especially those unrelated to direct use of natural resources, coming from the forest and the protected area within it? 2. Considering the economic value of the ecosystem services provided by the Codru forest and the Codru Nature Reserve, how much are people willing to pay annually to conserve ecosystems and biodiversity there? 3. How do Moldovan citizens benefit from forest ecosystem services and biodiversity? What is their attitude towards their conservation? Finally, how do these benefits and attitudes in combination with socio-economic characteristics influence people’s willingness to pay for better nature conservation? The results of the Codru Quest study showed that while the respondents were opposing to the expansion of the protected area and the conservation of more plant species, they were willing to pay about 0.77 EUR per person per visit for conservation of greater insect biodiversity and approximately 0.87 EUR per person per visit for better protection of endangered species of both flora and fauna. This corresponds to a total WTP of 2688.19 EUR per year for the first attribute of the environmental “good” in question and 3027.92 EUR per year for the second one. These monetary estimates represent mainly the recreational, existence, bequest, and altruistic values that Moldovan citizens attach to ecosystem services and biodiversity in the study area. The Codru Quest data here include: 1. Datasets for Phases I (testing of survey design) and II (final surveying) of the project with separation into city and village residents. 2. Dataset with final willingness to pay data from Phase II. 3. Dataset with socio-economic data of the respondents from Phase II. 4. Data from Phases I and II processed in the R software.

本数据集关联题为"《科德鲁考察：科德鲁保护区生态系统服务（ecosystem services）经济价值评估》"的研究项目。该项目由摩尔多瓦环境治理学院（Moldovan Environmental Governance Academy, MEGA）发起，是针对摩尔多瓦共和国科德鲁森林及其辖内科德鲁自然保护区的生态系统服务与生物多样性（biodiversity）开展经济价值评估的科研项目。项目核心目标为：在这一发展中国家应用选择建模法（choice modelling），估算并阐明上述森林及保护区的生态系统服务与生物多样性保护的间接使用价值与非使用经济价值。科德鲁考察项目旨在解答一系列研究问题，具体包括：1. 摩尔多瓦民众如何认知科德鲁森林的生态系统服务与生物多样性这类环境非市场"商品"？具体而言，他们对该森林及保护区内非直接利用自然资源带来的环境效益的估值水平如何？2. 结合科德鲁森林与科德鲁自然保护区提供的生态系统服务经济价值，民众每年愿意为当地生态系统与生物多样性保护支付多少费用？3. 摩尔多瓦民众能从森林生态系统服务与生物多样性中获得哪些收益？他们对生物多样性保护持何种态度？最后，这些收益与态度结合社会经济特征，会如何影响民众为优化自然保护的支付意愿（Willingness to Pay, WTP）？科德鲁考察的研究结果显示：尽管受访者反对扩大保护区范围及新增保护植物物种的数量，但他们愿意为保护昆虫生物多样性支付约每人次0.77欧元，为更好地保护濒危动植物物种支付约每人次0.87欧元。对应而言，上述第一项环境"商品"属性的年度总WTP为2688.19欧元，第二项则为3027.92欧元。这类货币估值主要体现了摩尔多瓦民众赋予研究区域生态系统服务与生物多样性的游憩价值、存在价值、遗产价值与利他主义价值。本次公开的科德鲁考察数据集包含以下内容：1. 项目第一阶段（问卷设计测试）与第二阶段（最终调研）的数据集，且按城市居民与乡村居民进行了划分；2. 第二阶段调研得到的最终WTP数据集；3. 第二阶段调研受访者的社会经济特征数据集；4. 经R软件处理后的第一、二阶段调研数据。